Kelly, Eagles look for repeat performance vs. Redskins

PHILADELPHIA — Chip Kelly had coached less than one half of one NFL football game, yet already he was professionally tattooed with one gaudy number: 53.

That’s how many plays Kelly’s innovative offense would uncork within the first half of what would be a 33-27 victory in Washington, three for touchdowns, all seemingly effective, each carrying the threat that the party could go on forever.

It didn’t happen that way, not in the second half, not necessarily through the other games in what has become the Birds’ 5-5 season. But those will be the Redskins they will play again Sunday, and while some things have changed, there are some remaining similarities.

So … is anybody up for 54 first-half plays this time?

“I think what happened that night was relevant, but you can’t it take away from the fact that they have changed,” Jason Kelce was saying Thursday after practice at the NovaCare Complex. “And we’ve changed as an offense, too. You can kind of go back and look at how some guys play and at some of the things you did successfully. But you’ve certainly got to treat it like it’s a new game.”

That’s the Eagles’ approach, which is sensible, for the opening night victory at FedEx Field became something of a new game even at halftime, as the Skins outscored the Birds, 20-7, in the final 30 minutes and were in reasonable recovery range late in the fourth quarter.

Since then, injuries have made the Eagles change quarterbacks, from Michael Vick, who passed for 203 yards and two touchdowns in that game, to Nick Foles. Since then, Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III has had more chance to recover from the knee injury that had cost him a complete offseason.

Yet, there is the possibility that the Eagles just match up well against the Redskins … and could do so again.

“But they are playing better,” said Brent Celek, who’d hauled in a 28-yard TD pass during that early Birds outburst. “They are playing a lot better. We’re doing some stuff better and a little bit differently. The difference between Week 1 and Week 11 is a big difference.”

For the Eagles, the obvious change is from Vick, a left-hander, to Foles, a right-hander, from a veteran to a younger player, from a running threat to a quarterback less prone to mistakes. Foles, naturally, watched the film of that early-season victory, but remained unconvinced that it revealed a script for an instant replay.

“You definitely look at that, because that’s our team,” he said. “That’s our personnel, and how they want to come out and play us. But they’ve grown week to week, so we just focus on their last couple of games to see what they are trying to do. We break down the film in different scenarios, and study what they like to do. Their defensive coaches know that, too. They know what they’ve done in the past. And they are going to try to throw us off.”

At 3-6, the Redskins are running low on chances to make something of this season, and thus hardly figure to attempt whatever it was that was so useless to them the first time. Even Kelly, who may never have a professional coaching moment as fulfilling as his first-round, 53-play flurry, is OK with putting it all behind.

“It changes,” Kelly said. “We didn’t see Brandon Meriweather in the first game. We’ll see him in this game. We didn’t see Rob Jackson in the first game. We’ll see him in this game. So there are always a couple wrinkles here or there. They played against Mike; they’re not going to play against Mike this time. So it’s different.

“You’ve got a body of work and you have a little bit of an understanding, but it’s not exactly the same as the first time.”

With a chance to move into first place in the NFC East, that’s the approach the Eagles have embraced — to prepare for a game Sunday, not to play remember-when, even if they did once hit the Redskins 53 times in a half.

“That was the first game of the season,” Celek said. “And things are going to be different this time around.”